Method and system to enable contact with unknown internet account holders

ABSTRACT

A method of enabling a server to contact an unknown Internet account holder can begin with the server receiving a request for a resource. The server then determines whether the request for the resource warrants sending a notice, and if so, identifies a notice destination to which the notice is to be sent. The server then generates a notice comprising an apparent IP address, a time the server received the request, and a communication; and sends the notice to the notice destination via a standardized communications pathway. An ISP can receive a notice from the server via the standardized communication pathway, and based thereon can identify the account holder based the requesting IP and optionally the request time. The ISP can then send the account holder the communication by an arranged manner despite the server not having known the identity of the account holder.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation from Ser. No. 09/901,947, filed Jul.10, 2001 and claims the benefit from U.S. provisional application No.60/217,077, filed Jul. 10, 2000, which are commonly owned andincorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The technical field of this invention relates to the Internet and likenetworks. In particular the present invention relates to thenotification of Internet access account holders by servers that do notknow the identity of the account holder.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As Peter Steiner observed in a famous New Yorker cartoon, “On theInternet, Nobody Knows You Are A Dog.” New Yorker, p. 61, Vol. 69, No.20, Jul. 5, 1993. From the earliest days of the World Wide Web,anonymous usage has been the primary method for surfing the Web.Generally, Web surfers can visit a Web site without telling the Web sitewho they are. Instead, based on standard Internet protocols, the Website (having a Web server) is told the surfer's IP address. The Webserver just needs to know where the information is to be sent, not whothe viewer is.

Often there is a third party facilitating the communications between aWeb surfer and a Web server—an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An ISPmay take on a variety of forms. It can be a standard commercial ISP,such as MSN or AMERICA ON LINE. An information technology department ofa business may provide Internet access to the employees of the businessand others. A home computer can host a LAN to share a DSL or cable modemline. For the purposes of this invention, an ISP is an intermediary thatprovides the routing of a message to a client computer system and canadditionally provide other services such as e-mail, news, chat rooms,and the like.

Typically, the ISP uses one of two methods to map IP addresses to itsusers' computers—static IP addresses and dynamic IP addresses. Static IPaddresses are permanently assigned to a user's computer. Even if theuser's computer is only connected to the Internet for a few minutes eachday, no one else uses the IP address assigned to that computer. Dynamicaddresses are IP addresses that are placed in a pool by the ISP andassigned to users' computers on an as-needed basis. It is, therefore,possible that a single IP address will be used by a large number ofcomputers in the course of a day. It is also possible that a single userwho surfs the Web from a single computer, but in multiple sessions, in asingle day would have a different IP address for each session. Inaddition, even if an ISP reliably identifies the computer from which arequest comes, it has no way of knowing which individual is using thecomputer. It could be the person who set up the account with the ISP(the account holder), the spouse of the account holder, a child of theaccount holder, an employee of the account holder, or someone else whoobtains access to the computer.

A variety of other existing conditions generally prevent a Web site fromreliably ascertaining the identity of a user through the use oftechnologies, such as proxy servers. Among those, a proxy serverdiscloses an IP address that may not be the IP address of the computermaking the request of the server. When a proxy server is used, the Webserver sends the Web page to the proxy server, and the proxy server, inturn, determines which computer has been assigned that IP address inorder to send a page to the right computer. Therefore, even though theWeb server does not know which computer has requested a Web page, it canuse the knowledge that it has (an IP address) to send the page to thecorrect computer and depend on the proxy server to use the knowledgethat it has (a correct mapping of IP addresses to its users' computers)to send the page to the correct computer. Also, a user may employ ananonymizing server to aid protecting the user's identity.

Further, even if a Web server knows who the current user of an accountis, the Web server does not necessarily know who the account owner, theperson responsible for the use of that account or who is responsible forsupervising that account, is. For example, companies provide Internetaccess to their employees, and parents provide Internet access to theirchildren.

Because a Web site cannot reliably depend on IP addresses to identifywho a user is or even if a current user is the same person who visited afew minutes earlier, numerous techniques have been developed to identifyusers. The most well-known is a “cookie” that the Web site “plants” onthe user's computer. A cookie is a small file that the Web site placeson the user's computer that the Web site can find each time the userrevisits the Web site. If the Web site finds a cookie that it planted inan earlier session, it knows that it is communicating with the samecomputer. Cookies are based on a “pull” technology, i.e., the Web sitehas no ability to contact the user, and it must wait for the user tovisit it. Once the user visits the Web site, however, the Web site canread the cookie and instantly know which computer is communicating withit. However, cookies are less than foolproof because people can accessan account from a friend's computer using their own account username andpassword and thereby make repeatable, reliable identification of a userproblematic.

Another technique is to ask the user for the user's email address.Possession of a user's email address allows the Web site to use “push”technology to contact a user, i.e., the Web site can, without waitingfor the user to visit the site, contact the user. Unfortunately, merepossession of a user's email address does not help the Web site identifythe user the next time that the user comes to the site. In addition,many users supply false email addresses or supply email addressesacquired from free Web-based email services that they seldom, if ever,check. Also, in any case in which multiple users access a singlecomputer and use a single email address, possession of an email addressdoes not allow the Web site to contact a particular person.

Another technique is the use of passwords. By requiring a user to supplya password each time the user visits a site, the Web site can assumewith reasonable certainty that it is dealing with the same person towhom it issued the password in an earlier session. Like cookies,passwords are a “pull” technology and not a “push” technology.

Although combinations of the above-described technologies can achieve anumber of the user's and the Web site's needs, they have not solved somevexing problems. For example, Web sites catering to children now need toverify children's ages and, in some cases, need to obtain parentalconsent, such as under. The Child Privacy Protection Act. Since childrendo not necessarily want their parents to know what they are doing on theInternet, they have found ways to defeat current parental notificationand consent mechanisms. For example, if a Web site asks for a parent'semail address, the child can create his or her own address and give itto the Web site as if it were a parent's email address. Any subsequentcommunications from the Web site to the parent would in fact be sent tothe child. Although some procedures have been crafted to deal with thisissue, they are either cumbersome or unreliable.

Another example is a teenager looking for pornography. Even if a Website is willing to restrict access to adults, it has no practical way todistinguish between child and adult users (especially when the childdoes not want to be found out). The two basic solutions are to implementa registration system that enables someone to prove in advance that heor she is eighteen years old or older or to depend on the parents of thechild user to purchase and install filtering software). None of theregistration systems proposed to date have passed constitutional muster.Therefore, none of the burden of policing porn surfing by childrencurrently rests with the porn site.

Therefore, it is desirous to find a solution to the deficiencies of thecurrent systems. Desirably such a solution would implement a method toenable Web sites and other servers to reliably contact account holderswithout requiring the account holder to tell the Web site who theaccount holder is. Desirably such a system would distinguish between theuser of the account and the person responsible for the account.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the present invention is a method of enabling a server tocontact an unknown Internet account holder comprising the steps of:

receiving a notice from the server via a standardized communicationpathway, the notice comprising a request time and a requesting IPaddress, and a communication;

identifying the account holder based the requesting IP address andoptionally the request time; and

sending the account holder the communication by an arranged manner;

wherein the server need not know the identity of the account holder, andthe notice need not contain information regarding the identity of theaccount holder.

In another embodiment of the present invention identifying the accountholder comprises checking a list of static IP addresses.

In a further embodiment of the invention the arranged manner is selectedfrom the group consisting of email, fax, voice, standard mail anddestruction.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the standardizedcommunication pathway is email, the step of identifying the accountholder comprises checking one or more files comprising a databasecomprising dynamic IP addresses, accounts, and times, and the requesttime is the time at which the server received the request.

Still another embodiment of the present invention, is for use in anenvironment where a proxy server is provided and the IP address receivedfrom the server as part of the notice is deemed to be a disclosed IPaddress. Such an embodiment checks a proxy IP address databasecomprising disclosed IP addresses, assigned IP addresses, and proxyassignment times, identifies the assigned IP address associated with thedisclosed IP address at the request time, and modifies the communicationto reflect the assigned IP address wherein the assigned IP address usedby the client computer system is reflected in the email.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method of enabling a serverto contact an unknown Internet account holder comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for a resource;

determining that the request for the resource warrants sending a notice;

identifying a notice destination to which the notice is to be sent;

generating a notice comprising an apparent IP address, a time the serverreceived the request, and a communication; and

sending the notice to the notice destination via a standardizedcommunications pathway.

Another embodiment of the present invention comprises the step ofwarning a user that fulfilling the request for the resource will resultin the sending of a notice.

In yet another aspect of the present invention the server is a Webserver that is sending a response to a hypertext transfer protocolrequest.

In still another aspect of the present invention the response to thehypertext transfer protocol request contains hypertext code that aids inpreventing the caching of the Web page.

In an alternative embodiment of the present invention the hypertexttransfer protocol request contains hypertext code that enables a cachingserver to send notices on behalf of the server.

Another aspect of the present invention is a system for enabling aserver to contact an unknown Internet account holder comprising:

means for receiving a notice from the server via a standardizedcommunication pathway, the notice comprising a request time and arequesting IP address, and a communication;

means for identifying the account holder based on the requesting IPaddress and optionally the request time; and

means for sending the account holder the communication by an arrangedmanner;

wherein the server need not know the identity of the account holder, andthe notice need not contain information regarding the identity of theaccount holder.

In another aspect of the present invention the means for identifying theaccount holder comprises a list of static IP addresses.

In yet another aspect of the present invention the means for sending isselected from the group consisting of email, fax, voice, standard mailand destruction.

In a still further aspect of the present invention, the standardizedcommunication pathway is email, the means for identifying the accountholder comprises a database comprising dynamic IP addresses, accounts,and times.

Another aspect of the present invention is for use in an environmentwhere means for assigning apparent IP addresses is provided and the IPaddress received from the server as part of the notice is deemed to bean apparent IP address, further comprising:

means for checking an apparent IP address database comprising disclosedIP addresses, assigned IP addresses, and proxy assignment times;

means for identifying the assigned IP address associated with theapparent IP address at the request time;

means modifying the communication to reflect the assigned IP address;

wherein the assigned IP address used by the client computer system isreflected in the communication to the account holder.

Another aspect of the present invention is a system for enabling meansfor serving a resource to contact an unknown Internet account holdercomprising:

means for receiving a request for the resource;

means for determining that the request for the resource warrants sendinga notice;

means for identifying a notice destination to which the notice is to besent;

means for generating a notice comprising an apparent IP address, a timethe server received the request, and a communication;

means for sending the notice to the notice destination via standardizedcommunications pathway means.

An alternate embodiment of the present invention comprises means forwarning a user that fulfilling the request for the resource will resultin the sending of a notice.

Another aspect of the present invention is a system for enabling aserver to contact an unknown Internet account holder comprising:

a standardized communications pathway server capable of receiving anotice;

a parser capable of identifying a request time, a requesting IP from thenotice and a communication within the notice;

a login database comprising IP addresses, request times, and accounts;and

account holder communication subsystem for sending the account holderthe communication;

wherein the server need not know the identity of the account holder, andthe notice need not contain information regarding the identity of theaccount holder.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the login databasecomprises a list of static IP addresses.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the account holdercommunication subsystem is selected from the group consisting of email,fax, voice, standard mail and destruction.

In still another embodiment of the present invention, the standardizedcommunication pathway server is an email server, and the login databasecomprises dynamic IP addresses, accounts, and times.

A further alternative embodiment of the present invention is for use inan environment where a proxy server is provided and the IP addressreceived from the server as part of the notice is deemed to be anapparent IP address, further comprising:

an apparent IP address database comprising disclosed IP addresses,assigned IP addresses, and assignment times for the disclosed IPaddresses;

software that identifies the assigned IP address associated with theapparent IP address at the request time;

software that modifies the communication to reflect the assigned IPaddress;

wherein the assigned IP address used by the client computer system isreflected in communication to the account holder.

Another aspect of the present invention concerns a system for enabling aserver to contact an unknown Internet account holder comprising:

a server to receive a request for a resource;

software to determine that the request for the resource warrants sendinga notice;

software to identify a notice destination to which the notice is to besent;

software to generate a notice comprising an apparent IP address, a timethe server received the request, and a communication; and

a standardized communications pathway server to send the notice to thenotice destination.

A further embodiment of the present invention comprises software forwarning a user that fulfilling the request for the resource will resultin the sending of a notice.

In another embodiment of the present invention the resource is ahypertext transfer protocol resource.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparentto those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, theaccompanying drawings and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The benefits and advantages of the present invention will become morereadily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art afterreviewing the following detailed description and accompany drawings,wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates the relationship of the systems of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process and system by which a usersends a request to a server;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process and system by which aserver sends a notice to an account holder; and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process and system by which an ISPdelivers a notice to an account holder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this written description, the use of the disjunctive is intended toinclude the conjunctive. The use of definite or indefinite articles isnot intended to indicate cardinality. In particular, a reference to“the” object or thing or “an” objection or “a” thing is intended to alsodescribe a plurality of such objects or things.

It is to be further understood that the title of this section of thespecification, namely, “Detailed Description of the Invention” relatesto a requirement of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, andis not intended to, does not imply, nor should be inferred to limit thesubject matter disclosed herein or the scope of the invention.

Although the present invention is susceptible of embodiment in variousforms, there is shown in the drawings and will hereinafter be describeda presently preferred embodiment with the understanding that the presentdisclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the invention andis not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodimentsillustrated.

Referring to the figures, and in particular to FIG. 1, the presentinvention is directed to systems and methods by which a server 10 cancontact an account holder 12 of an Internet access account (IAA) 14 onan ISP 16 being used by a user 18 making a request 20 from the server10. The server 10 is a server on a network 22, such as the Internet (andsuch should be treated as synonymous for this invention). The ISP 16 isconnected to the same network 22. A client computer system 24 isconnected to the ISP 16 as permitted by the Internet access account 14established or supervised with the ISP 16 by the account holder 12. Theuser 18 through his client computer system (or “client”) 24, the ISP 16,and the network 22 can make requests 20 of the server 10. The server 10can send responses 26 to the user 18 through the network 22, the ISP 16,and the client computer system.

The server 10 manages requests 20 for resources 28 from computer clientsystems 24. For the purposes of this invention, the resource 28 is anyinformation, file, or service provided by the server 10 to a client. Theserver 10 can be a Web server, in which case the resources 28 requestedare Web pages, and the requests 20 and responses 26 are done accordingto hypertext transfer protocol (abbreviated HTTP). The Web server 10 canbe hosted on any number of hardware computing platforms (computers)known to those of ordinary skill in the art. A Web server 10 can alsouse a wide variety of software as appropriate for the operating systemselected. Thus, UNIX systems can use APACHE or NETSCAPE, a NOVELL Webserver can use NETWARE WEB SERVER (such as is included withINTRANETWARE), a WINDOWS NT system can use INTERNET INFORMATION SERVER,or a MACINTOSH system can use APPLESHARE IP 6, MACHTTP, or WEB-STAR. Theserver 10 can also be an FTP (file transfer protocol) server thatprovides files, a news server (often using NNTP, but possibly a productsuch as DNEWS) that provides news service (such as USENET news), or achat server (such as an IRC server) that provides a series of messages.A server 10 can even serve interactive sessions hosted by TELNET and thelike.

The ISP 16 is an entity that provides access to the network 22. The ISP16 can provide access to the Internet 22 via a variety of communicationspaths, including, but not limited to, dial-up modems, cable modems, ISDN(integrated services digital network 22) modems, DSL (digital subscriberline) modems, LANs, Ethernet connections, and even wireless connectionsincluding, but not limited to, satellite dishes. Software for managingaccess to the ISP 16 varies with the communication path chosen. When adial-up modem is used, Point-to-Point protocol (PPP) can be used, butother methods such as Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and otherscan also be used. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, awide variety of hardware and software can be used to accomplish theconnection of ISPs 16 to clients 24, and all such forms of connectionare contemplated by the present invention.

Typically, the ISP 16 will provide access to the Internet 22 in exchangefor remuneration, but some fee-free ISPs 16 exist. Examples of ISPs 16include, but are not limited to, AOL, MSN, EARTHLINK, UNITED ONLINE,AT&T WORLDNET, COMPUSERVE, PRODIGY and the like. The technical offeringsof ISPs 16 vary, but the fundamental task of an ISP 16 is to provideaccess to the Internet 22. In doing so, the ISP 16 provides the routersand other equipment necessary for the client to communicate with theInternet. ISPs can provide services such as domain name resolution,email accounts, Web servers, USENET news access, chat servers, and more.

The ISP 16 manages its Internet 22 access via accounts 14. The ISP 16can define an account 14 by a username that tracks the usage of theaccount 14 and assures that a given connection is a usage of the ISPs 16resources 28 authorized by the ISP 16. To limit the use of the account14 to authorized uses, an ISP 16 will ordinarily assign a passwordassociated with the user 18 name. For example, the ISP 16 may allow onlyone connection to its system using a particular user 18 name at a time,or may only permit the account 14 to be used during certain hours or fora certain amount of time each month. The ISP 16 can also use the account14 to monitor usage for billing purposes. For example an ISP 16 couldbill the account holder 12 based on the bandwidth used, the amount oftime the account 14 is active, a combination of those, or other factorsthat the ISP 16 desires and to which the account holder 12 agrees.

The account 14 can be configured for use by several users 18. Forexample, AOL permits one “account 14” to have multiple user 18 names andemail addresses so that an entire family can share a single account 14,although only one user 18 can be logged in at a time. Another examplewould be a LINUX system that permits multiple users 18 to access theInternet 22 via a single PPP connection. Any number of ISPs 16 supportmultiple email addresses per account 14, for example AMERITECH'sSPEEDPATH 768 (www.ameritech.net) provides one Internet 22 connectionwith five (5) email accounts. The present invention contemplates eithersingle or multiple users 18 per Internet access account 14 whether theusers 18 are defined by the ISP 16 or the account holder 12.

The account holder 12 is a person or entity responsible for the Internetaccess account 14, and can be responsible for payment, use, or the like.The account holder 12 can be the same as the user 18 of the account 14.Alternatively, the account holder 12 can be a different person orentity. For example, a user 18 could also be one of the parent'schildren, but the parent would still be the account holder 12. The user18 can be an employee of a company, and the account holder 12 would thecompany, exercising its prerogatives as an account holder 12 throughsupervisory employees of the company.

Users 18, whether the account holder 12 or someone or something else,use a client computer system 24 to access the ISP 16 and the Internet22. A client computer system 24 is hardware, firmware and/or softwareappropriate for accessing the ISP 16 and the Internet 22 and whateverservers on the Internet 22 as desired. The client computer system 24 isnot necessarily a single fixed system for any given Internet accessaccount 14. First, multiple client computer systems 24 can be used toaccess a single account 14. For example, a home system can have severalcomputers in the home, each of which accesses the same Internet accessaccount 14, albeit not necessarily simultaneously. Second, for nationalISPs 16, such as AOL and MSN, a vacationer could still access hisInternet access account 14 from any properly equipped computer. As willbe evident to those of ordinary skill in the art, the present inventionis not necessarily tied to a particular computer.

The hardware for a client computer system 24 can be a general purpose“PC” system running client computer operating system software such asWINDOWS 98 or the like from Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., RED HATLINUX of Durham, N.C., OS/X from Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif., orthe like. Possible Web client software includes, but is not limited toNETSCAPE NAVIGATOR, or MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER (IE). The clientcomputer system 24 can also be a personal digital assistant configuredfor Internet access, such as a PALM VII and the like or even a cellularphone such as a KYOCERA SMARTPHONE and the like. The client computersystem 24 could also be a television receiver system, such as ULTIMATETV from DIRECTV (see www.directv.com) or STARBAND from DISHNETWORK 22(see www.disknetwork.com). A client computer system 24 does notnecessarily have only one user 18 at a time. For example a LINUX systemcan serve a LAN, or have multiple X-Windows terminals or serial loginsessions.

A user 18 is an entity that is using the Internet access account 14 viathe client computer system 24 at any given time. The user 18 can be aperson or even a computer program such as an automated agent. Even ifthe user 18 is a person, the user 18 can be different people atdifferent times.

For example, Mr. Smith can have a computer equipped with software and anaccount 14 for his family with AMERICAN ONLINE (AOL). Tracy, Mr. Smith'schild, can use the account 14 to make access YAHOO!'s services via AOL.YAHOO! is the server (site) 10, AOL is the ISP 16, and the computer 24with the software is the client. Mr. Smith is the account holder 12, andTracy is the user 18. Another example would be for an employee to accessYahoo.com from his desktop computer via his company's Internet accessservice, which can be monitored by the information services department.In that example, YAHOO! is again the server 10, the company's Internetaccess service is the ISP 16, the employee is the user 18, the desktopcomputer is the client, and the information services department is theaccount holder 12. Numerous variations on these theme will be apparentto those of ordinary skill in the art and are contemplated by thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a user 18 connects 30 the client computer system 24to the ISP 16 by designating the Internet access account 14. For thepurpose of this invention connecting a client computer system 24involves establishing the ISP 16 as an effective pathway 32 between theserver 10 and the client computer system 24, and can comprise any ornone of authorization, authentication, assignment of an IP address 34,assignment of a router, and the like. The client computer system's 24login process can be automated by a script, or the user 18 can manuallyenter the information necessary to log in, such as a username andpassword and the like. For dial-up modem systems, this can compriseestablishing a PPP connection with the ISP 16. For DSL or cable-modemsystems, establishing an effective pathway 32 may not be necessary oftenas these are “always-on” technologies. For dedicated connections such asT-1 lines accessed via a corporate LAN, logging the client computersystem 24 into the LAN may be sufficient.

The ISP 16, using standard techniques known to those of ordinary skillin the art, designates 54 an IP address 34 for the client computersystem 24 and establishes communication with the client computer system24. For the purposes of this invention, the IP address 34 of the clientcomputer system 24 can be either a static IP address 44 or a dynamic IPaddress 48. The ISP 16 can use DCHP, BOOTP or other protocols fornegotiating the assignment of the IP address 34 with the client computersystem 24. For an Internet access account 14 or a client computer system24 having a static IP address 44, the ISP 16 need not assign ordesignate 54 a dynamic IP address 48. The IP address 34 of the clientcomputer system 24 can be, but is not necessarily, masked by a proxyserver 36. Further, the ISP 16 can establish an apparent IP address 37,possibly using a firewall or proxy server 36, that the ISP 16 will usefor communications with the Internet 22. It is also possible thatanonymizing servers 38 can be used providing additional layers ofapparent IP addresses 37. A designation time 42 is the time at which theISP 16 designates 54 the IP address for the client computer system 24,whether actual 34 or apparent 37. Each IP address 34, 37, whether actualor apparent, designated by the ISP 16 can have a designation time 42.

For client computer systems 24 having static IP addresses 44, the ISP 16can maintain a static IP address database 46 of client computer systems24 and IP addresses 34. The client computer systems 24 can be identifiedby various means known to those skilled in the art, including but notlimited to tracking the Ethernet identity of an Ethernet card.Alternatively, for client computer systems 24 having dynamic IPaddresses 48, the ISP 16 can log 56 the time of the allocation of the IPaddress (designation time), the Internet access account 14 being usedand the IP address 34 allocated to the client computer system 24.Associating a given client computer system 24 with a static IP address44 is a straightforward task for those of ordinary skill in the art, andwill not be discussed here.

In logging 56 the designation time 42, account 14, and IP address 34,the ISP 16 can use standard log files 50 for the servers used to log theclient computer system 24 in. Such log files 50, singly or incombination, can comprise a login database 52. The login database 52 canalso be created independently of the server log files 50 and maintainedby the ISP 16 via any number of flat file, relational, or other databaseprograms. Such file can be maintained solely for the purpose ofimplementing the invention or can be applied to other purposes. Forexample, such a database can be used to re-establish dropped connectionsto a client computer system 24 with an identical IP address 34. See U.S.Pat. No. 5,812,819.

In one method of the present invention, the user 18 requests 58 aresource 28 from the server 10 using the client computer system 24. Itwill be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the actualrequest 20 for a resource 28 may have preceded the user 18 connectingthe client computer system 24 to the ISP 16 and triggered the connectionto the ISP 16 via an automatic connection mechanism, such as present inWINDOWS 98 connection manager. Various technicalities, such as theresolution of URLs and domain names, are well understood by those ofordinary skill in the art and are not an inventive aspect of the presentinvention. Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand how suchtasks are accomplished, usually by the ISP 16, to route the user's 18request 20 to the server 10.

The request 20 may be routed 62 directly to the server 10 by the ISP 16,or may be routed 62 indirectly through multiple routers and/or routingcomputers including third-party anonymizing services 38 such as providedby ZEROKNOWLEGE (www.zeroknowledge.com) among others. In one embodiment,the request 20 for a resource 28 can be a request 20 for a Web page froma Web server 10 using a Web browser. The ISP 16 and or other thirdparties, such as anonymizing servers 38, may each assign 60 an apparentIP address 37 to the IP address that it received from the previous stagein the process. Each of these entities assigning 60 an IP address is anISP 16 for the purposes of this invention, and can perform the logging56 of apparent IP addresses 40 and the designation times 42 of thoseapparent IP addresses 40.

Referring to FIG. 3, the present invention contemplates systems andmethods in which the server 10 receives a request 20 from the user 18for a resource 28 and, in addition to the response 26 to the user 18,generates a notice 64 to the account holder 12 of the request 20. Thenotice 64 may be generated for a variety of reasons. First, regulationsor statutes may require the operator of the server 10 to notify theaccount holder 12 of certain activity. As one example various commercialor moral child protection acts can require operators to contact parentsregarding transactions proposed by children. Second, the operator of theserver 10, in order to maintain a good commercial reputation or in goodconscience can voluntarily decide to provide notices 64 as appropriate.For example, despite its entry into the adult content market, YAHOO!could decide to provide notices 64 voluntarily to account holders 12,even though it may not be required to do so by law in order tofacilitate good public relations.

Still referring to FIG. 3, the server 10 receives 66 a request 20. Afterreceiving 66 the request 20, the server 10 determines whether the server10 needs to generate a notice 64 in order to provide the requestedresource 28, and what notice 64 is appropriate for the particularresource 28. Examples of resource 28 content that could requirenotification of an account holder 12 are: pornographic material, hatematerial, material outlawed in particular countries (for examplematerial critical of the Chinese government), and material solicitingthe private information of minors (per The Children's Online PrivacyProtection Act).

The code for determining a need for (or triggering) the generation of anotice 64 can be located in the resource 28 requested, in the server 10itself, or in a database accessed by the server 10. For example, a Webpage can contain code to generate the notice 64 or call a program togenerate the notice 64 when it is accessed by the server 10. Forexample, Active Server Pages can be used to provide Web pages whilesimultaneously generating a notice 64. Alternatively, the Web server 10itself can be programmed to trigger the generation of the same notice 64for all Web pages it serves. In another alternative, the Web server 10can use a database, whether incorporated into the Web server 10 or in aseparate application or file, to trigger the generation the notice 64.

Another embodiment of the present invention is embodied in an FTP server10. For example, an FTP server 10 (FTPD) at a pornographic site could beprogrammed to generate an identical notification message with each andevery file transfer. A third example would be an NNTP server 10 thataccesses a database individual to the Internet access account 14 andgenerates notices 64 in accordance with that database. Such a databasecould be generated by the ISP 16, or could even be generated incooperation with the account holder 12. Notices 64 can be generated onlyfor selected newsgroups and or for all newsgroups.

Optionally, if a notice 64 is in order, the server 10 issues 70 awarning to the user 18 that proceeding will result in a notice 64 beingsent to the account holder 12, allowing the user 18 to abort the request20. In the embodiment of the invention directed to Web servers 10,tracking whether the warning has been issued 70 can be handled viacookies, having a link to a purported content page lead instead to awarning page that actually presents a content page, via a pop-up windowwith response-accepting widgets, and other methods known to those ofordinary skill in the art.

If and when the server 10 continues to process the request 20, theserver 10 identifies 72 a notice destination 74 that the notice 64 is tobe sent to. Preferably, the server 10 identifies the notice destination74 that the notice 64 is to be sent to by performing a reverse domainname lookup based on the IP address of the requesting computer system(whether client 24, ISP 16, anonymizer or other source) to generate adomain name. Optionally, if a domain name lookup fails, the notice 64can be sent directly to the requesting computer system or abandoned.

In embodiments of the present invention regarding Web servers 10, it ispreferred that Web pages responsive to requests 20 for HTML 1.1 andhigher HTML code that trigger 68 the generation of a notice 64 utilize“cache-control” hypertext protocol headers as described in RFC 2068(available at www.itef.org) and later updates of the same. Headers ofthe form: HTTP header: cache-control: no-cache can aid in preventingcontent from being cached by either ISPs or local computers Request 20sfor HTML 1.0 code and higher can use HTML meta-tags. Meta tags such asHTTP-EQUIV=“Pragma”, CONTENT=“no-cache”, or can setHTTP-EQUIV=“Expires”, CONTENT=“0” can also be used to aid in preventingcaching by servers not equipped to or not having sufficient data togenerate appropriate notices 64. Analogous technologies can be appliedfor non-Web servers 10 to prevent access of material that shouldgenerate a notice 64 from servers 10 that are not equipped to properlygenerate notices 64.

Optionally, a meta-tag for “Notice” with the content of the tag beingthe communication appropriate for the Web page be included in theheaders. In such an embodiment, caching intermediates, such as used byAOL and others, can generate appropriate notices 64 from cached copiesof the Web page. Alternatively, the server can make information fornotices available via a public database. Such a publicly availabledatabase can be implemented in a variety of ways including specializedservers, Web servers, ftp servers, and other remote data access methodsknown to those of ordinary skill in the art.

The server 10 can generate 76 the notice 64. It should be noted thatalthough it is preferred for the server 10 to generate 76 the notice 64after attempting to identify 72 a notice destination 74, such is notnecessary. The notice 64 comprises: 1) the apparent IP address 37 of theclient computer system 24; 2) the time and date that the server 10received the request 20; and 3) the communication 78 that the server 10desires to impart to the account holder 12. The apparent IP address 37of the client computer system 24 is the IP address to which the server10 will send the requested resource 28. The apparent IP address 37 canbe, but is not necessarily, the actual IP address 34 of the clientcomputer system 24. As discussed above, proxy servers 36 and oranonymizing servers 38 may be in use, so the server 10 does not know ifthe IP address is the actual IP address 34 of the final destination. Thetime and date include time zone so that an offset can be applied toreconcile the time of the notice 64 with the local time of the eventualinterpretation of the notice 64.

Preferably, the notice 64 contains a line such as the following: “Touser of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx at 12:01:45 GMT on Dec. 13, 1999”. The textcould be any communication that the Web site 10 wanted to send. Forexample, “Someone using your computer on Dec. 13, 1999 at 12:01:45visited a sexually explicit site”. Or, “Someone identifying himself as a15 year old named Joe Jones has asked to become a Pen Pal Club member.If you are Joe's parent or legal guardian, please complete and submitthe attached questionnaire to give him permission to join.” In responsea person can provide information confirming responsibility for theaccount or named individual. The information confirming responsibilitycan be in a variety of means known to those of ordinary skill in the artincluding digital certificates, credit card numbers, and the like orthrough the provision of verifiable contact information through othermedia such as postal addresses, phone numbers and the like.

The server 10 then sends 80 the notice 64 to the notice destination 74via a standardized communications pathway 82. The standardizedcommunications pathway 82 is preferably email. The notice destinationcan be the ISP 16 or can be an anonymizer or other entity.

A sample Perl script for identifying 72 a notice destination 74 andgenerating 76 and sending 80 such a notice 64 is provided in Appendix A.A header (lines 1-5) is followed by the designation of the locations ofvarious files including the program for sending mail (lines 9-11). Atime offset portion, assuming a computer 4 hours from GMT is included atline 19, and the time is obtained at lines 24-25. The remote IP addressand remote host are obtained as environment variables. (lines 26-27) Theprogram checks whether a notice 64 has already been sent. (line 32) If adomain name to be mailed cannot be obtained (as understood by those ofordinary skill in the art, the address of SMTP servers serving aparticular domain are normally obtained via the DNS system) the scriptchooses not to send the notice 64. (line 37). The present invention isnot limited to resolved IP addresses, however. The numerical IP addresscan be enclosed in square brackets [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] and the notice 64sent to that IP address. The script then limits sending notices 64 todestination having international top level domains and the U.S. nationaldomain. (lines 40-51) However, the invention is not limited to existingTLDs or this country. The subroutine mail is then called. (line 52)

The mail subroutine (lines 66-72) calls the sendmail subroutine (lines74-89) to compose the email message and sends it to the mail sendingprogram (lines 75 and 89). In this example the server 10 is sending aneutral message to the account holder 12 from “explained.com.”

A routing recipient, such as an ISP 16 or anonymizer server 38, at thenotice destination 72 may implement the present invention for a varietyof reasons. First, it may be required to do so pursuant to regulation orstatute. Second, the notice destination 72 may decide that in order tomaintain a good commercial reputation that the receipt and management ofthese notices 64 is appropriate. For example, a family-friendly ISP 16could decide to differentiate itself from other ISPs 16 by providing thebenefits of this invention. Another example would be an anonymizer 38such as ZEROKNOWLEDGE that is employed by the account holder 12 on thecondition that it forward such notices 64. Upon receipt of the notice64, the notice destination 72 either identifies another noticedestination 72 (in the case of an anonymizer 38 and the like) oridentifies the account holder 12 to whom the notice 64 is directed (inthe case of the ISP 16), and forwards the notice 64 to the accountholder 12.

Referring to FIG. 4, in a simple embodiment of the invention, the server10 sends the notice 64 to the ISP 16. The ISP 16 receives 84 the notice64 from the standardized communications pathway 82. The ISP 16 thenprocesses 86 the notice. In an embodiment where the standardizedcommunications pathway 82 is email, the receiving mail (often SMTP)server can process the notice by searching the recipient field todetermine the requesting IP address contained in the notice 64. Apreferred simple method is to have the IP address be the designatedrecipient as part of the email address such as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx@DOMAIN.For situations where a notice 64 is being forwarded, the forwardingentity can substitute a new recipient for the email address using thesame information that would be used to forward the response 26 from theserver 10 to the request 20, constituting a new destination IP address.

The ISP 16 can provide software for processing 86 incoming email forevery IP address that can be used by account holder 12 desiring toreceive 84 notices 64. Generally, this will be the static IP addresses44 of accounts 14 desiring to receive notices 64 and all possibledynamic IP addresses 48. Upon receipt of the email, the ISP's 16 mailsystem would send the notice 64 to its “ipaddress” processing 86software or “ipaddress” mailbox or mailboxes. Using manual or automatictechniques well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, the contentof the email message can be processed (synonymous here with parsed) toseparate the IP address 34, and the time.

If the IP address 34 is a static IP address 44, the ISP 16 would knowthe account holder 12 to whom to message should be delivered. If the IPaddress is a dynamic address 48, the ISP 16 can identify 88 the IPaddress 34 by querying the login database 52 or scanning and/or parsingthe appropriate log files or other means that uses date and timestamping techniques to keep track of IP address assignments. The logindatabase 52 can then be queried to determine which account 14 isassociated with the IP address 34 on the specified day and at thespecified time. It should be noted that just because a particularaccount 14 or client computer system 24 ordinarily used by an account 14has a static IP address 44, an ISP 16 can permit multiple logins orlogins from other than a dedicated client computer system 24 to usedynamic IP addresses 48.

If a proxy server 36 is used, the ISP 16 refers to the appropriate logsand determines the IP address 34 that the apparent IP address 37 isassociated with. In any event, the ISP 16 can refer to the logindatabase 52 to identify 88 the Internet access account 14 associatedwith the destination address and proxies thereof.

Once the Internet access account 14 is identified 88, the account holder12 can be identified 90 by manually or automatically referring toinformation on the Internet access account 14. Once the account holder12 is identified, the ISP 16 can contact 92 the account holder 12 in anymanner that the ISP 16 and the account holder 12 have previouslyarranged or that they arrange in the future, such manner comprising anaccount holder 12 communication subsystem.

For example, one arranged manner, perhaps the default, can be to simplydestroy the email message if the account holder 12 is not to receivenotices 64. This can be the case if the user 18 is an adult living aloneand is capable of preventing anyone else from using his or her computer.Such an account holder 12 could have no interest in being told that heor she made a request 20 of a particular server 10. Another arrangedmanner would be to give the Web site an email address to which only theaccount holder 12 has access (e.g., a free email account 14). The ISP 16could also send the notice 64 to an account holder 12's email account 14with the ISP 16. Other alternatives can include sending a printout tothe account holder's 12 address, a telephone number via fax print, atelephone number for an oral communications (preferably automated), or awork email address to which a general notification could be sent.

Because the overwhelming majority of Internet access accounts 14 arepaid for by credit card, virtually no child is the account holder 12 fora paid ISP 16 account 14. If a child accesses the Internet 22 from acomputer at home, in almost every case the account holder 12 will be theparent of the child, a guardian of the child or someone who has arelationship with a parent or guardian of the child. Therefore, acommunication with the account holder 12 will effectively be acommunication with the parent or guardian of the child. Similarly,almost no employees pay for the Internet access accounts 14 they use atwork—those are paid for and maintained by the employer. Therefore, acommunication to the account holder 12 of an employee's account 14 willthe employer.

Using the present invention, a pornography site can warn every user 18that it will notify the account holder 12 if a particular page is viewedand can send the appropriate email if a user 18 chooses to view the pagein question. This approach is akin to requiring a teenage boy who looksat a Playboy magazine at home to leave it on the kitchen table before hegoes to school rather than hiding it in his closet. In most cases thiswould be an effective deterrent to children who want to visitpornography sites. The approach will also be quite effective foremployers who are concerned about improper employee use of the Internet22.

In addition, a site that would want to reliably notify a parent about achild's use of the site could notify the account holder 12 (typicallythe parent) directly. If the site wants to get parental permission, itcould do so by contacting the account holder 12 and asking the accountholder 12 to verify that he or she is the parent and to return apermission slip or to forward the communication and the permission slipto the parent. Since the child will not have access to the communicationwith the account holder 12, it is feasible to put a password or othersecurity device in the email so that the parent can communicate later ona secure basis. In fact, the Web site can set up a separatecommunications channel that can only be accessed by someone with thepassword (or other security device). This is desirably for commercialsites that have concerns about proper notification under The Children'sOnline Privacy Protection Rule

Similar arrangements could be implemented for other uses of the Internet22. For example, newsgroups are another way in which pornographicmaterials are distributed over the Internet 22. Information posted onnewsgroups is not delivered to users 18 in the same way that informationis delivered to users 18 on the Web. In the case of the Web, informationis housed on a computer controlled by the provider of the information.For example, if a page request 20 is sent to whitehouse.gov, the request20 is sent by the user 18 to an ISP 16 that passes the request 20 on tothe White House's Web server. The White House Web server takes therequest 20 and returns the information to the ISP 16 which, in turn,sends the page to the user 18.

In the case of newsgroups, an ISP 16 determines in advance how many ofthe tens of thousands of newsgroups it wants to support. It thendownloads all postings to those newsgroups on a regular basis. When auser 18 of the ISP 16 wants to download a posting, the onlycommunication is to the ISP 16. If the ISP 16 already has the requestedposting (probably as a result of its most recent download), it sends itto the requesting user 18. Therefore, there is no current mechanism inplace for the person who originally made the posting to be notified atthe time that the ISP 16 sends the posting to its user 18.

One way to enable the person making the posting to warn ISP 16 accountholders 12 about objectionable content is to require the person to markhis or her posting in a way that notifies the ISP 16 that the contentmay be unfit for children (e.g., starting the subject line with “**over18**”). Whenever a user 18 wants to download a posting, the ISP 16 couldcheck the subject line to see if it started with “**over 18**”. If so,the ISP 16 could notify the account holder 12 that a posting so labeledwas sent to his or her computer (or possibly warn the user 18 first, andnotify the account holder 12 only if the user 18 downloads the postinganyway). If the account 14 owner desired, the entire posting could beretained and held for the account holder 12. Alternatively, newsgroupsthat contain postings that are generally unfit for children could informthe ISP 16 (possibly by including “**over 18**” in its name) and therebyallow the ISP 16 to notify the account 14 owner of all downloads fromthat newsgroup without looking for an “**over 18**” label on theindividual posting.

Another way would be to provide a news server 10 programmed to generatenotices 64 based on the preferences of the account holder 12. Theaccount holder 12 can designate which newsgroups should result in anotice 64 being sent to the account holder 12. When the Internet accessaccount 14 is used to read one of the designated newsgroups, the notice64 is sent to the account holder 12. The notice 64 can comprise any ofthe name of the newsgroup, the identity of the posting(s) read, or eventhe content of the posting(s) read.

Similar procedures could be used for chat servers, listservs and emailmessages. Anyone sending something unfit for children could put the same“**over 18**” language in the subject line, thereby enabling an ISP 16that reviews the subject line to notify the account holder 12 in theright situation. Either that, or the chat server, listserv, or otheremail distributor can send notices 64 as described above with theappropriate time, destination IP and communication information.

Finally, even if a user 18 elects to using anonymizing software, a Website can “look through” the anonymizing server 38 to send a message tothe user 18. Since the Web site only knows the IP address of theanonymizing server 38, it sends an email message toipaddress1@[anonymizingserver].com. If the anonymizing server 38maintains the proper database, the anonymizing server 38 could thenforward the email message to the user 18's server using the addressipaddress2@[userserver].com. Note that the Web site does not need toknow who the user 18's ISP 16 is. The user's 18 ISP 16 can thenreforward the message to the user's 18 computer.

It should be noted that the present invention complements content-basedor origin-based filtering. If a particular site or type of contentworries an account holder 12, the account holder 12 can be lessaggressive in filtering content from sites that participate in thissystem. The account holder 12 can rest assured that even if user 18access questionable material, that such access can be monitored. Forexample, if a parent is the account holder 12, and 90% of the content ofa given site is acceptable to the parent but 10% is not, then the parentdoes not need to block the site if the ISP 16 and the server 10implement the present invention. The parent can rest assured that ifchildren access questionable material using the Internet access account14, then he/she will be informed of the usage and be able to takeappropriate action.

From the foregoing, it will be observed that numerous modifications andvariations can be effectuated without departing from the true spirit andscope of the novel concepts of the present invention. It is to beunderstood that no limitation with respect to the specific embodimentillustrated is intended or should be inferred. The disclosure isintended to cover by the appended claims all such modifications as fallwithin the scope of the claims.

APPENDIX A #!/usr/bin/perl #### #### ##### ###### Tell Your Mom################################## ###### Set these #################$location = “/enter.htm”;  # push them where? $cookiedir =“/tmp/cookieavs”; # must make this writeable by httpd user $sendmail =“/usr/lib/sendmail”; # location of sendmail binary################################## ### DO NO EDIT BELOW THIS LINE ##################################### #GMT = $ENV{‘DATE_GMT’} #LOCAL =$ENV{‘DATE_LOCAL’} #[18/Jun/1998:16 :47:52 -0400] $offset = “0400”; # 4hours from gmt $century = “19”; #Thursday, 18-Jun-98 20:44:32 EST($weekday,$day,$month,$year,$time) = $ENV {‘DATE_GMT’} =~ m/(.*?) \,(.*?)\-(.*?)\-(.*?) (.*?) /; $stampdate = “[$day/$month/$century$year-$offset]”; $remote = $ENV{‘REMOTE_ADDR’}; $host = $ENV{‘REMOTE_HOST’};$mycookie = “$cookiedir/$remote”;######################################################### if (-e$mycookie) { $status = “We already told on you!”; &done; } # alreadymailed &cookieout; if ($remote eq $host) { &done; } # a non-resolvableip ######################################################### if ($host=~ m/.*\..*\.../) { if ($host =~ m/com$|net$|org$|edu$|gov$|mil$/) {$host =~ m/.*\.(.*?\..*)/; $sendto = $1; } elsif ($host =~ m/\.us$/) {$host =~ m/.*\.(.*?\..*\.us)/; $sendto = $1; } else { $sendto =“wrong.one”; } ### wont work - foreign? &mail; } else { $sendto =$host;&mail; } ######################################################### subdone { print “Content-type: text/plain\n\n”; print “$status\n\n”;exit(0); } sub mail { unless ($host eq “wrong.one”) { $status = “I'mtelling Mommy! (ipaddress\@$sendto)”; &sendmail; } &done; } sub sendmail{  open (MAIL, “|$sendmail ipaddress\@$sendto,ipaddres\@$sendto”) ∥ die“Can't open $mailprog!\n”;  print MAIL <<EOF; From:ipaddress\@explained.com Subject: $whichpage $remote $stampdatehttp://$ENV{‘HTTP_HOST’}$ENV{‘REQUEST_URI’} This has been an advisoryfrom http://www.explained.com For more information on the proper use ofthis service please contact our Website. EOF close (MAIL); }################### User Cookie Subs ########################## subcookieout {  open (COOKIE, “>$mycookie”) ∥ die “error opening$mycookie\n”;  print COOKIE “ ”;  close (COOKIE); }

1. A method of enabling an apparatus comprising a server computer tosend a notice to a network account holder, the method comprising:receiving, by an apparatus comprising a server computer, a request for aservice from a second computer used by a user and through a first pathcomprising a network and a third computer used by an ISP having acontractual relationship with a network account holder; making, by theapparatus, a first determination whether to send a notice to the networkaccount holder via a second path arranged by the ISP and the networkaccount holder, the notice comprising a communication and the secondpath comprising a standardized communication pathway; making, by theapparatus, a second determination whether to send a response to thesecond computer via a third path, the third path comprising the networkand the ISP; if the first determination is to send the notice,generating the notice comprising a communication and sending the noticeto the network account holder via the second path; wherein the apparatusneed know neither an identity of the network account holder nor anidentity of the user and neither the notice nor the response needcontain the identity of the network account holder or the identity ofthe user.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step ofwarning the user that fulfilling the request for the service will resultin the sending of the notice.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein theapparatus is a Web server that is sending the response to a hypertexttransfer protocol request.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the responseto the hypertext transfer protocol request contains hypertext code thataids in preventing the caching of the Web page.
 5. The method of claim 3wherein the response to the hypertext transfer protocol request containshypertext code that enables a caching server to send notices on behalfof the apparatus.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the standardizedcommunication pathway is email.
 7. A computer system for enabling anapparatus comprising a server computer to send a notice to a networkaccount holder, the system comprising: an apparatus comprising a servercomputer, a second computer, and a third computer, the apparatus, thesecond computer, and the third computer configured such that: theapparatus receives a request for a service, makes a first determinationwhether to send a notice to a network account holder via a second patharranged by an ISP and the network account holder, the notice comprisinga communication, the second path comprising a standardized communicationpathway, makes a second determination whether to send a response to auser via a third path, the third path comprising the network and theISP, if the first determination is to send the notice, sends the noticeto the network account holder via the second path, and sends theresponse to the user via the third path, wherein the server computerneed know neither the identity of the network account holder nor theuser, and neither the notice nor the response need contain informationregarding the identity of the network account holder or the user; andsuch that the second computer, corresponding to the user, sends arequest for a service to the apparatus via the first path comprising anISP and a network, the ISP having a contractual relationship with thenetwork account holder; and such that the third computer, used by theISP, receives the request for the service and forwards the request forservice to the apparatus via the network, the network configured toallow receiving the request for the service and causing the request forthe service to be delivered to the apparatus, either directly orindirectly; and wherein: software, operating on the apparatus,determines that the request for the service warrants sending the notice;software, operating on the third computer, identifies a noticedestination to which the notice is to be sent; software, operating onthe apparatus, generates a notice comprising the communication; and thestandardized communications pathway over which the notice can be sent tothe notice destination.
 8. The system of claim 7 further comprisingsoftware, operating on the apparatus, that generates a warning to theuser that fulfilling the request for the service will result in thesending of the notice.
 9. The system of claim 7 wherein the service is ahypertext transfer protocol resource.
 10. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding, if the second determination is to send the response, sendingthe response to the second computer via the third path.
 11. The methodof claim 1, wherein the second computer is a cell phone.
 12. The methodof claim 1, wherein the ISP is a cell phone network.
 13. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the network is the Internet.
 14. The method of claim1, wherein: the apparatus makes a third determination whether to send awarning to the second computer via the third path before sending eitherthe notice or the response, the warning comprising a communicationinforming the user that the notice will be sent unless the request forthe service is withdrawn or otherwise terminated; and if the thirddetermination is to send the warning, sending the warning to the secondcomputer via the third path; and wherein the warning need not containinformation regarding the identity of the network account holder or theidentity of the user.
 15. An apparatus comprising a server computer tosend a notice to a network account holder, the apparatus comprising: anapparatus comprising a server computer and programmed so that theapparatus: receives a request for a service from a second computer,corresponding to a user, through a first path comprising a network and athird computer used by an ISP having a contractual relationship with anetwork account holder; makes a first determination whether to send anotice to the network account holder via a second path arranged by theISP and the network account holder, the notice comprising acommunication and the second path comprising a standardizedcommunication pathway; makes a second determination whether to send aresponse to the second computer via a third path, the third pathcomprising the network and the ISP; if the first determination is tosend the notice, sending the notice to the network account holder viathe second path; and wherein the apparatus need know neither an identityof the network account holder nor an identity of the user, and neitherthe notice nor the response need contain the identity of the networkaccount holder or the identity of the user.
 16. The apparatus of claim15, wherein the apparatus is programmed so that if the seconddetermination is to send the response, send the response to the secondcomputer via the third path.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein thesecond computer is a cell phone.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, whereinthe ISP is a cell phone network.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16, whereinthe network is the Internet.
 20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein: theapparatus makes a third determination whether to send a warning to thesecond computer via the third path before sending either the notice orthe response, the warning comprising a communication informing the userthat the notice will be sent unless the request for the service iswithdrawn or otherwise terminated; and if the third determination is tosend the warning, send the warning to the second computer via the thirdpath; and wherein the warning need not contain information regarding theidentity of the network account holder or the identity of the user.